Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
2027 census of India
16th Indian census From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
The 2027 census of India, or the 16th Indian census, is to be conducted in two phases, a house listing phase and a population enumeration phase. Although initially the house listing was to begin in April 2020 along with the updating of the National Population Register, and the population enumeration on 9 February 2021,[2] they have been continuously postponed. The national census is set to begin on March 1, 2027,[1] after multiple delays since its original 2021 schedule. This 16th census will include caste enumeration for the first time since 1931. Certain regions like Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will commence the census earlier, starting from October 1, 2026.[1][3][4] This census is expected to serve as the basis for redistributing seats in the Lok Sabha for the 2029 general election as part of the delimitation exercise.[5]
 | It has been suggested that Caste census be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2025. |
In September 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that the 2021 national census would be done fully digitally through a mobile phone application,[6] and will be carried out in 16 languages.[7] In February 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated ₹37.68 billion (US$450 million) for the census in the 2021 Union budget of India.[8] It was delayed to 2022[9] and then further delayed to 2023[10] due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Following the postponement of the deadline of freezing administrative boundaries to 30 June 2023, and owing to the general elections in 2024, it was apparent in early 2023 that the census would not take place earlier than late 2024.[11] This was confirmed in July 2023, when the Government of India extended the deadline to freeze the administrative boundaries to 1 January 2024, ruling out the census exercise before the 2024 Indian general election.[12][13] On 20 September 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed during the discussion on Women's Reservation Bill that census and the delimitation exercise will take place after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.[14][15] On 30 December 2023, the deadline to freeze the administrative boundaries was further extended to 30 June 2024, thereby postponing the census to at least October 2024 as it would have required three months to identify and train enumerators.[16]
Remove ads
Information collection
Summarize
Perspective
House-listings
The House-listing schedule contains 31 questions:[17][18]
Population enumeration
The population enumeration follows the housing census within a gap of six to eight months. During the second phase of census taking, each person is enumerated and her/his individual particulars like age, marital status, religion, schedule caste/schedule tribe, mother tongue, education level, disability, economic activity, migration, fertility (for female) are collected.[19]
Remove ads
Enumeration methods
Digital enumeration
In April 2019, at the conference of data users it was announced that 3.3 million enumerators would be enlisted and that they would be encouraged to use their own smart phones, although a paper option will also be available, which the enumerators will then need to submit electronically.[20] During the census exercise a census portal will be opened, allowing individuals to self-enumerate after logging in using their phone numbers.[21] The building of a mobile app for conducting the census along with the creation of the census portal for information collection is aimed at doing away with paper records in the exercise, making India along with Vietnam and Eswatini, one of the few countries who have tried to do so.[22]
Remove ads
NPR
National Population Register will be linked to this census.[23][24] NPR was supposed to be updated along with the first phase of census between April and September 2020,[25][26] however that too has been postponed indefinitely.[27] On 24 December 2019, the Central Government approved ₹39.41 billion (equivalent to ₹49 billion or US$580 million in 2023) for updating the NPR across India.[28]
Caste enumeration
Summarize
Perspective
The 15th Indian census, taken in 2011, attempted to estimate the population based on Socio-Economic and Caste Status for the first time since 1931. However, as the enumeration was based on recording the respondents' declaration, it led to creation of hundreds of thousands of caste/subcaste categories. For the 16th Indian census, the government was instead considering enumeration based on a list of educationally or socially disadvantaged castes (known as Other Backward Class) reported by each state.[29] However, in February 2020, the Indian government rejected the demand for OBC data as part of the 2021 census.[30][31]
In September 2018, the then Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, announced that the 2021 census will have Other Backward Class (OBC) data, for the first time since the 1931 census.[32] Despite this announcement, the questionnaire presented in July 2019 did not have a specific OBC category.[33] Several state legislative assemblies passed resolutions for collecting OBC data including the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly,[34] Odisha Legislative Assembly,[35] and Bihar Legislative Assembly,[36] while the government of Uttar Pradesh, rejected the opposition's demand to pass such a resolution.[37] On 29 February 2020, central government refused to conduct caste census despite demands from states.[38] Despite Centre's rejection, Maharashtra legislators were adamant for caste based census at least in the state.[39] Protest march in support of OBC census was carried out in Jammu and Kashmir.[40] Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale also demanded carrying of census counting every single caste in India.[41] On 6 June 2022 the Bihar government issued a notification to conduct a caste survey, and began collecting data on 7 January following the dismissal of petitions against it in the supreme court.[42] On 2 October the Bihar government released preliminary data from the survey,[43] with the full detailed report being publicly released in the state assembly on 7 November 2023.[44] On 26 June 2024, the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly unanimously adopted a resolution urging the union government to immediately commence census work along with a caste based population census, however the Chief Minister M.K. Stalin declined to conduct a Bihar style caste survey, as any changes made to reservation based on a survey by the state government could be struck down by the courts, while contending that a full-fledged census can be legally only conducted by the Union government under the Census Act, 1948.[45][46] In July 2024, Union Minister Chirag Paswan backed the demand for conducting a caste census as part of the 2021 census, however he opposed its data from being publicly revealed as he believed it will lead to division in society.[47]
During the 2024 general elections, the inclusion of a caste census became a key demand of the opposition INDIA alliance led by the Congress.[48]
On April 30 2025, Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided to include caste enumeration (caste census) in forthcoming census exercise.[49]
Remove ads
Delays
Summarize
Perspective
The 2021 census is the first census to ever be postponed in India since its beginning under the British in 1872.[50] Even during the Second World War, the census of India was held in 1941 as scheduled, although the tabulations of the results of the 1941 census were incomplete compared to the detailed reports published after the 1931 census.[51] Before the census, according to the rules, the boundaries of administrative units are to be frozen before conducting a census; this was initially supposed to have happened on 31 December 2019, with the states having to update these changes to the Registrar General of India by 31 January 2020. The house listing phase or the first phase of the census along with the NPR was to be conducted between April 1, 2020, and September 30, 2020, with the population enumeration or second phase in February 2021 and a revision round in March 2021.[20][52] However following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union government postponed the house listing phase of the census exercise,[53] before the census in its entirety was postponed to 2022[54] However the census was never conducted in 2022 as it was repeatedly delayed. The deadline to freeze administrative boundaries was first extended to 31 December 2020, then to 31 March 2021, then further extended to 30 June, then to 31 December of the same year until it was extended to 30 June 2022, after which it was extended to 31 December 2022, and then another extension was granted till 30 June 2023.[11] The exercise was then given a further extension to 1 January 2024,[12] this was followed by another extension to 30 June 2024.[16] Based on a Reuters report citing government officials, it was expected that the census would begin in September 2024, however no final approval was given for this timeline.[55][56]
Reasons for the delays
The official rationale for the initial extensions of deadlines had been the COVID-19 pandemic, however this had been criticized as during 2021–22, twelve countries in Asia were able to conduct their decennial census including neighbouring Bangladesh and Nepal.[57] An analysis by The Hindu found that 143 countries had conducted their censuses after March 2020, with India being one of the only two countries which were yet to conduct their regular census exercise among the ten most populous countries in the world, at the time of the analysis, with the other being Nigeria.[58]
The delays have also been attributed by analysts to the linking of the census with the NPR exercise which is seen as the first step towards the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC), the decision to update the NPR and discussions on imposing a nationwide NRC were some of the key issues taken up by the CAA-NRC protests. The demands for a caste census have also been attributed as one of the reasons behind the continuous delays.[59]
Impact of delays
The continuous postponement of the census has led to many commentators and newspaper editorials demanding for it to conducted immediately as the information from census is the only way to gain granular data on the country, as sample surveys can only provide state or countrywide data rather than street or village or block level data, with some of these surveys also relying on census data. The lack of census data is said to be a major handicap for policy-makers as without it, they have to rely on outdated census data for local level planning. Many key welfare interventions in India such as the Public Distribution System and the NFSA are reliant on census data, and having outdated data has led to the exclusion of many potential beneficiaries from them. Without data from the census, it is also difficult to validate the outcomes of government interventions using key metrics such as literacy, housing, fertility, urbanization, etc.[60][61][62][59][63] The lack of updated census data also affects the quantum of reservation for SC/ST segments of the population and the delimitation of constituencies for elections.[50]
Remove ads
Final results
A Reuters report in August 2024 claimed that officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs were preparing to conduct the 2024 Census of India in September 2024, the final data of which was expected to be released in March 2026. As the census takes 18 months to complete.[64][56][55]
See also
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads